Can Disney MagicBands work for hospitals?

A MagicBand could replace patients' ID bracelets and allow patients to hold up their wrist to open doors or check into new areas


Mark Rolston, who was chief creative officer at Frog when the design firm developed Disney’s MagicBands —  which allow visitors to walk around Disney World and simply wave their hand to pay for meals, skip through lines and unlock their hotel rooms — wondered if the technology would work in a medical setting, according to an article on the Fast Company website. 

With two radios live in each band, a MagicBand could replace patients' ID bracelets. The first radio is a short range RFID signal, which would allow patients to hold up their wrist to open doors or check into new areas, like blood labs. It would also allow care providers to pull up medical records instantly.

The second radio has a longer range (think Bluetooth) that could track the positions of patients (or staff) throughout the buildings in real time. 

That data could allow the staff to track down a trauma surgeon instantly, and over time, such data might reveal ways the hospital experience could be streamlined to benefit patients and doctors alike, the article said.

Read the article.

 



February 9, 2015


Topic Area: Industry News , Safety


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